Today we’re going to talk about the place of humor in a
newspaper. But before we get to that, I must say, “Family
Guy” is back on the air, and that is way more important than
student elections, labor strikes or anything else that happened
this month at UCLA.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like
to introduce myself in this here, my first column ever for the
Daily Bruin.
I wasn’t supposed to begin writing until summer or even
fall, and when I was hired, my editor told me, “We’re
probably not going to know what do to with you for quite a
while.”
Even with those inspiring words of encouragement, there was
eventually a series of wild and crazy hijinks (including blackmail,
bribery and poetry), and I got the gig.
Now it may be true that I do not have any official journalism
experience of any kind whatsoever, and I get all my news from
either Star magazine or CollegeHumor.com. And I admit that these
facts may alarm some of you. But rest assured, I have always had a
prurient interest in journalism, as we can see from this article I
wrote for a computer class I took in 1993, titled “Volcanic
Eruption”:
“In Hawaii there was a great eruption. People believe
there is a volcano godess. The godess’s name is Pele. There
is a story about a man who had a breakdown on the road. He was
looking for his wrench when a hand gave it to him. He turned to see
the person but there was nothing there. People say “˜That is
the signal.'”
I’m sure you all can see the sheer brilliance of this
piece and are marveling at the fact that, given my child
prodigy-like potential for writing, it took me 12 years to
officially enter the world of journalism.
So now that we’ve established that in all likelihood a
Pulitzer Prize is in my near future, I feel we should talk about
the place of humor in a newspaper (which is, as you may have
forgotten, today’s subject).
Some of you may have noticed that this column hasn’t
really contained any of the subjects that you normally find on the
Viewpoint page, like gas prices, the Middle East, Taco Bell or
STDs. The rest of you are using the Daily Bruin as a makeshift
poncho to protect yourselves from the rain because you forgot your
umbrella. That’s OK too.
Seriously though, all of those editorials about important stuff
are really good, and you should read them and enlighten yourselves.
But for one day a week, you’re all going to get a little
break from serious and weighty topics and read instead about how
funny it is to see someone with a popped collar.
There are only so many ways to get your point across in a good
column ““ logic, reason, emotion, research, interviews,
anecdotes or other meaningful or well thought-out arguments.
You won’t find any of that here. I don’t have
anything against meaningful arguments; I’m just not that good
at them. It’s true ““ when I was walking around the
Festival of Books looking for story ideas, my best one involved
this guy in front of a comic booth who looked and sounded exactly
like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
Seriously, all the other journalists were meeting authors and
taking pictures and talking to book lovers, while I was snickering
at this guy with nachos and a ponytail.
We need to be able to laugh at ourselves and not take each other
too seriously. After all, college is a fairly important time for
many people, where decisions we make can influence the rest of our
lives.
And I know many of you look to the Daily Bruin for news, advice,
inspiration, social activities and other important information.
That’s a good thing, because that’s what the newspaper
is for.
But humor is important too, and when we laugh or even smile, our
mood improves. When moods improve, people can be influenced to
treat each other with more kindness. We may refrain from our first
impulse to give the Bruin Walk people passing out fliers a dirty
look, and smile at them instead. They in turn may pick up some of
those inserts that fell out when you opened today’s paper. A
professor, having seen this spirit of goodwill, may decide to
cancel the pop quiz in anatomy and give the kids a chance to
study.
And so it continues, like gentle ripples on a still pond, until
it’s turned into a half-assed movie starring the kid from
“The Sixth Sense.”
I may have gone off topic a little bit, but you can see my
point.
So I want the pseudo-intellectual bloggers, the dedicated
athletes, the stoners, the passionate activists, the fraternity
brothers, the gifted musicians, the sci-fi channel watchers, the
sorority sisters, the art history students, the elegant
metrosexuals, the Internet gamers, the people who wear Led Zeppelin
T-shirts but can only name one of their songs, and everyone else to
read my column and tell me what they think.
You can give me your honest opinion, but I much prefer insincere
compliments that bolster my fragile self-esteem.
And maybe, just maybe, you’ll smile or even chuckle.
Because that’s really the point, isn’t it?
Insincere compliments and Vioxx ads may be sent to
akaney@media.ucla.edu.